


Narrative Essay #2

by orphan_account



Category: Talking It Over - Julian Barnes
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Feel Free To Copy This Anywhere You Want, alternative ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:16:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29885832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: What would've happened if Oliver went to the fish-van instead of Gillian.





	Narrative Essay #2

**Author's Note:**

> In case anyone has the misfortune to ever get assigned to write a short narrative essay about this book in class (so, basically, a fanfic), you can use this and do whatever you want with it.
> 
> Theme: alternative ending for the novel using 10 words or phrases from it. I got an 80, and I hate it. Orphaning this the second it's out.

Oliver was quite mad when was on his way back home. He had skived off work to spend time with his family, he had even offered to go buy some fish for dinner, and what did he get as a reward? His neighbor telling him some ‘Uges’ guy was staying at the hotel across the street!

He knew Stuart enough to know it was him. It was a feeling of sorts, deep within his bones, that he probably experienced because he  went way back with the other man. He wouldn’t  put it past him to keep stalking them like a creepy character in an advertisement warning about online pedophiles.

Oliver didn’t wait for that. He went straight to the hotel, letting the trout he had bought to heat up and go bad inside the car, and made a beeline for what the receptionist told him was Stuart’s room.

He'd  hit the mark : Stuart  _ was _ there, looking  ghastly as ever. Oliver confronted him, they shouted, Stuart cried. Oliver  went on a riff about the fact that he had ‘won Gillian fair and square’, and  that’s what did it . Stuart grabbed the  tacky lamp on the nightstand.

The receptionist went upstairs when she heard a  skirl , and let out a  squeal the second she saw the body.

Was it a body? Stuart kept  stammering he was just unconscious. There was blood, though. And he wasn’t moving.

By the time Gillian crossed the street, her son half-asleep in her arms, everything was already over.


End file.
